Thread: Hi. Prepare your-selves for a barrage of questions on 350 chevys from this rookie!

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Hi all. Another new member signing in to say. Technically im into the off-road scene, but i still like my off-roader to hot-rodded and chromed up. Its gota look good when you wash off the mud.

My vehicle is a 1979 Series 3 landrover short wheel base. its got 33/10.5R16 grizzily claws (soon to be Micky T Baja Claws), 4 inch suspension lift, racing springs and shocks, full rally interior (bucket seats etc) with very big speakers, and a new paint job (outside and engine).

Its only a start, but im only 19 so plenty of years to mod. My next plan is to drop in a rebuilt (and hopefully highly modified)350ci chevy small block onto a lightwieght spaceframe, so ill be asking questions about chevy v8s til the sun goes down!

Unfortunately over here in cold wet england there is no hot rod scene, except for 17yr olds putting big spoilers on vaxhall novas, so my knowledge of hot-rodding is limited, but you'll be getting questions from me soon enough.

See ya around
Lobster

Lobster, WELCOME! Having wasted money and years working on two MG Midgets I am aware that the aluminum V8 originally in GM Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile here in the U.S. eventually found their way into British cars. Does your Rover have one of those neat little V8s? Are the British version of those V8s aluminum or iron? Anyway get ready for about 575 lbs. for a fully dressed SBC 350 unless you go with aluminum heads.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

at the moment my landrover (well more of a bogstormer really) only has a 2.25 with 80hp!!!!!!!

hence why im planning to rebuild a 350 (and i mean a TOTAL rebuild and blueprint)and drop that in. im hoping for around 350 hp from it but with with HUGE amounts of torque. being an off-roader i like torque better than hp

the v8s over here are all obsolete versions of the 60's buick. they're all ally (heads and block) here, but they're useless. tiny in size (the largest is 306ci!), and pretty unreliable. the max a 306 could churn out would be 280 which aint too bad though. still i want a Proper engine, which only you guys in america do

Lobster (just starting automotive/mechanical engineering!)

Well Lobster in your major you will be able to learn a lot of theoretical stuff about engines and do a good job on your 350 buildup, but I know little about the rest of the chassis on a Rover. Interestingly there is a guy here in Ashland Va who has been doing a body-off restoration of a Land Rover outside in his driveway for the last two years but I have not had time to strike up a conversation with him yet. The point I am trying to get to is that the SBC 350 will easily put out close to 400 ft-lb of torque so the transmission and rear need to be strong. I am using a measley Ford 8" rear for a mild 350 but a Ford 9" rear is generally considered the strongest rear and of course the transmission has to be up to the task as well. A GM TH350 or TH400 seem to hold up well but only have a 1.00 high gear ratio and then the GM 700R4 has overdrive but may not be as strong as a TH350 so I accepted the problem and purchased a beefed-up 700R4 from Monster MotorSports here in Florida but if you use a 700R4 for the OD mpg enhancement you might want to find a way to beef it up a bit. If you go with a TH350 or TH400 as whatever you can find, you will then have to worry over finding the proper rear gear ratio for your application with a tradeoff between gas mileage and stump-pulling torque. I went with a 3.55 rear gear because the 700R4 has a 3.06 low gear but maybe I should have gone with a 3.7 rear gear since the OD handles the mpg problem. If you go from a driveline meant for 80 H.P. to an engine of more than 300 H.P. it is likely that the transmission and/or rear will be the weakest link. Well I am just chatting with you to welcome you to the Forum; there are some REAL EXPERTS here with many years of rodding experience and I am amazed at the expertise that these folks dispense. I have worked on cars for most of my life as a hobby (I also started out as an Automotive-Mechanical Engineering student, but found I was best in Chemistry!) but my present project of a complete build up of a 1929 Ford Roadster 'glass replica is actually beyond my skill level and I have been getting a LOT of good advice from more experienced folks on this Forum. So ask away and I am sure you will be able to learn a lot from these folks with years and years of valuable experience.

Don Shillaqdy
Retired Scientist/teen rodder